Road form and anchor therefor



June 18, 1957 INVENTOR. HAROLD NAGIN.

wmzrm ATTORNEYS.

ROAD FORM AND ANCHOR THEREFOR Harold Nagin, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Reliance Steel Products Company, McKeesport, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 5, 1953, Serial No. 340,606

6 Claims. (Cl. 25-118) This invention is for an improvement in road forms of the type used in paving concrete roads and highways and an anchoring means for such forms.

It is a common practice in the building of concrete roads and highways to place metal forms at each side of the area to be paved, these forms not only serving to confine the concrete to the area to be covered, but also constituting rails along which paving equipment, such as spreaders and screeds are moved as the concrete is poured. These forms are usually of a heavy gauge metal of substantially L shape with a flanged head at the top forming a track surface for the wheels of the machines that are moved along them. Naturally the rails at each side of the lane or roadway area being paved must be parallel, and they must be firmly anchored. The rails are generally made in sections of about ten feet in length. They are commonly anchored in place by metal pins that pass through eyes of some kind in brackets secured to the outer faces of the vertical webs of the rails and through registering holes in the base flanges of the rails into the earth. Drive wedges or keys are driven horizontally through the brackets to lock the pins and rails against relative movement after the pins have been driven.

This method of anchoring is open to several objections. If the pin is not straight, which may be the case after repeated reuse, or if it strikes a rock that deflects it, it tends to push the form out of position or else break its own hold in the ground. Difliculty is encountered in removing the wedge keys, and also in loosening pins that are tight.

My invention has for its principal object to provide an improved anchoring device and a specially improved pin which not only gives improved holding power and eliminates wedge keys, and which may be more easily removed, although providing a superior anchor for the rail. The improved anchoring means is economical to manufacture, and simplifies the use of such forms.

My invention may be understood by reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a form rail embodying part of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of the anchoring pins for use in connection with the rail of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section through the shank of the pin in the plane of line IIIIII of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a similar section in the plane of line IV-IV of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a side view of the pin and rail assembly with the pin driven to its anchoring position.

Referring to the drawings, 2 designates generally a form rail which is of shape now commonly used, having a vertical web 3 which is customarily about ten inches high, but which may be more or less, and a base flange 4. At the top of the vertical web 3 the metal is turned over to form the head of the rail, there being a horizontal flange 5, and on the outer edge thereof there is a depending flange 6. The rail head formed by the flanges 5 and 6 is designed to provide a surface on which States Patent 2,795,836 Patented June 18, 1957 flanged wheels of the road building machinery can roll in the usual manner.

According to the present invention, two opposed leaf springs, designated 7 and 8, are supported with their ends in spaced, but confronting, relation to each other at the outer face of the web of the form above the bottom flange. I have shown the spring 7 as being welded at one end to a stiff supporting bracket 9 welded to the web of the rail, and the spring 8 is similarly supported on the bracket 10. The manner of supporting the springs on the rail may of course be modified to suit the choice of the designer, it being necessary, however, that the springs 7 and 8 have the ends which are most remote from each other rigidly attatched in some manner to the form, and the springs should be projected out from the outer face of the web far enough so that they will not be under the head of the form provided by the flanges 5 and 6. If the top of the form were to overhang the springs, access for driving the anchoring pins, hereinafter described, would be blocked. The free ends of the springs 7 and 8 are preferably concave, as indicated at 7a and 8a.

The base 4 of the form has a hole 11 through it which is vertically centered under the space between the ends of the opposing springs 7 and 8.

For cooperation with the spring structure shownin Fig. 1, my invention provides an anchoring pin designated generally as 12 having a shank 13 with a pointed lower end 14. The shank 13 may be round or square or polygonal, and the hole 11 in the base flange 4 is of a size and shape to provide a working fit for the shank, or in other words, the diameter of the hole 11 is just enough larger than the diameter of the shank 13 to per mit the pin to slide therethrough. At the upper end of the shank there is a head 15 which is of generally oblong section, as shown in Fig. 4. Being so shaped, it is substantially longer in one transverse direction than the other, but it may be rectangular in form, or a modified rectangle, as shown, or an elipse, or oval. In its longest dimension it is longer than the maximum diameter of the shank 13, and in its smallest direction it is preferably less in diameter than the diameter of the shank 13. The two vertical edges or narrow faces of this head portion are provided with a series of transverse teeth, or corrugations, or notches 16.

In using the form, the form is set in position on the road bed at the place where it is to be located. The anchoring pin is then projected down between the ends of the springs 7 and 8, and the point passed through the hole 11, with the long transverse axis of the head of the pin parallel with the longitudinal axis of the form. The pin is then driven into the ground, and when the head engages the springs, the springs will be deflected downwardly, and their ends will catch in the notches or spaces between the teeth 16, as shown in Fig. 5. The springs being thus engaged in the notches, lock the form against relative vertical movement and hold the form rigidly in place. In the drawings, I have shown but a single pair of springs and a single anchor pin, but the forms are normally ten feet or so in length, and there may be two or three anchoring pins and sets of springs on each length of the form.

If the pin, in being driven, strikes a rock which tends to deflect it, the springs will yield enough to accept this deflection without pushing the form out of its proper position, and the same is true if the pin happens to be slightly bent.

When it is desired to remove the form, a suitable wrench is' applied to the top end of the pin and it is turned This releases the ends of the springs from engagement with the pin, because the space between the ends of the springs is equal to or slightly greater than the narrow dimension of the head of the pin. This turning of the pin also breaks 'theinitial bond 'of the pin in the earth, and it may then be worked loose and pulled in the .usual manner.

Because of the ends of the springs being recessed or concave, as indicated at 7a and 8a, adequate clearance is provided 'fortthe shank of the anchoring pinto pass between the ends of the springs, but when thenotches are engaged by the springs, the engagement between the springs and the head of the pin will restrain the form againstsidewise motion, so that if the road building machinery tends to rock the form sidewise, motion will be resisted not only by the passage of the pin through the hole 11 in the base, but also by the recessed ends of the springs fitting around the head of the pin.

While I have shown and described one embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that various changes and modifications may beemade in the constructionshown within the contemplation of my invention.

.1 claim:

'1. The combination with a road form having a base flangeand a vertical web, and having a pair of longitudinally-extending springs supported thereon above the base flange at the outside of the vertical web, which springs each have an end in confronting spaced relation .to the other with the remote ends of the springs rigidly mounted on said form, and wherein the base flange has an opening therethrough under the space between the confronting ends of the springs, of an anchoring pin having a shank portion passing through said hole in the'base, and having a head portion with opposed series of teeth thereon in which the ends of the springs are engaged.

2. A road form as defined in claim 1, wherein the headportion of the pin is elongated in a transverse direction and the opposed series of teeth are in the narrow vertical faces of such transversely elongated head.

3. A road form as defined in claim 1, wherein the head portion of the pin is elongated in a transverse directhe flange having an opening therethrough, an anchoring pin adapted to be driven through the opening having a shank designed to be driven into the earth and having an upper end which is flattened into a rectangular section having a thickness not greater than the thickness of the shank and a width greater than the width of the shank, the narrow :edges of said section having a vertical row of transverseiserrations therein, and resilient means on the Web through which the shank of the pin may pass, but whichengages thenotches in the flattened edges of the pin whenthe pin is set for such engagement to occur, but which means may be disengaged from said notches to permit withdrawal of the pin when the pin is rotated about its axis 90 with respect to said former position, said resilient means being flexible in a direction normal to the base flange.

5. A road form having a base flange and a web extending upwardly from the base flange, a pair of confronting leaf springs spaced longitudinally of said web and above the base member, the remote end of each spring being secured in fixed vertical relation to said web, the confronting ends of said springs being spaced to pass the lesser transverse dimension of the shank portion of a form anchoring pin and to engage the greater transverse dimension of said pin shank when disposed transversely of the space between the confronting spring ends, and an opening extending through said base flange substantially centered under the space between the confronting spring ends and of a diameter providing free passage and rotation of such anchoring pin.

6. A road form as defined in claim 5 wherein the vertical web has an outwardly-turned head portion at the top thereof, and wherein the springs are supported outwardly from the web of the form clear of the overhang of said head.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 979,863 Leeder Dec. 27, 1910 1,349,340 Hotchkiss Aug. 10, 1920 2,237,741 Lind'sley Apr. 8, 1941 2,586,912 Braun Feb. 26, 1952 2,688,787 Lawler Sept. 14, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 133,408 Sweden Aug. 16, 1929 

